Month: February 2017

London National Park City Campaign

Connecting people and the outdoors

About a year ago, an industry friend of mine invited me along to a walk around London’s green spaces. A friend of his, a man I now know to be Daniel Raven Ellison (guerrilla geographer and captain of the London National Park City Campaign) had put together a proposal to make London, the UK’s first National Park City and he was leading a guided walk to help demonstrate why.

The walk began as predicted, wandering London’s urban streets, picking up enthusiastic walkers at random tube and bus stops along the way. We strode down inner-city roads where houses and high rise buildings towered above us on both sides but then surprisingly slipped into a park, woodland or riverside path. We wove our way through the London streets dipping from meadow to stream, canal to allotment. I was spell bound.

I spent a good proportion of my childhood getting the train up and down to London but these trips were always for urban reasons; museums, art, culture, theatre or the latest tourist attraction. I never once travelled to London for the public green space and almost three decades later, I had no idea there was so much of it. I don’t think whilst I walked that day, I fully grasped the national park city concept but what I did learn, is that in London’s urban sprawl, there are pockets of green space, havens of wildlife and quite remarkable parks and gardens quite literally everywhere you go.

Fast forward a year and only 1 short month ago, I found myself listening to the first Sodshow podcast of 2017 where that very same friend of mine was being interviewed by passionate horticulturalist Peter Donegan. The topic; London as a National Park City. My mind was instantly cast back to that walk.

Mr Donegan remarked that the concept is such a simple one that it is almost baffling; create “a city where people and nature are better connected. A city that is rich with wildlife and every child benefits from exploring, playing and learning outdoors. A city where we all enjoy high quality green spaces, the air is clean to breathe, it’s a pleasure to swim in its rivers and green homes are affordable”  (National Park City, 2017). Think back to Studio 31’s last blog which discussed healing gardens and the healing power of nature and then consider this concept and how it is not so far removed.

The statistics are staggering. If we consider children alone; in 2013, the RSPB published a three-year study, which concluded that four out of five children in the UK were not adequately “connected to nature”. In 2012, a National Trust report revealed the growing gap between children and nature. Less than one in 10 children regularly played in wild spaces, it said, compared to half of children a generation ago (The Guardian, 2016)

It may not surprise you to know that London is home to 8.6 million people, but did you also know that it is home to almost as many trees? 8.3 million to be precise; That’s almost one tree for every person in London.  It has 13,000 species of wildlife and already encompasses 4 world heritage sites, 2 national nature reserves and 1400 sites for conservation (London National Park City, 2017). It seems, much of the nature and green space is already there, what’s missing is the people connecting to it, enhancing it, caring for it and recognising it.

The great privilege of a career in landscape architecture and garden design, is that we work with exactly this concept every day. We create spaces for people to be outside, we design gardens to bring a part of nature right to the doorstep. We give people places to sit and be mindful, tree houses to play in and orchards for al fresco family dinners. We design residential gardens, community or public realm landscapes and work on scales both large and small but what almost all our schemes have in common is that (whether by choice or coincidence), we connect people and the outdoors.

The National Park City concept aims to extend this further to allow people to have free access to high-quality and importantly public green space to connect with nature right where they live. Here at Studio 31 we aim to give people, individual gardens or landscapes, personalised for them. Often, we also get to work on public realm or master planning projects which looks at doing the same for larger groups of people but what we hadn’t considered before was that in doing what we do, we fill the gaps between the urban buildings with pockets of green space. We design roof terraces and courtyards which enable nature to creep into a few square meters high above the ground or at the rear of a row of terraces. We make London just a little greener and add just a little biodiversity here and there. When we design a park or a community space, we give people more useful, more accessible connection to nature and so when we think about the National Park City campaign, we’ve suddenly seen our work in a new light. Seen how in some small way through garden design or landscape architecture we can contribute something small to something bigger and perhaps more powerful than any urban city has seen before.

 

Photo by Takahiro Sakamoto

Studio 31

The conscientious landscape architect

Ten years ago, under a million stars and over 200km from the nearest semblance of civilisation, a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson sprang to mind:

“Nature always wears the colours of the spirit”

This was never truer than in this place of red dust and scrub land. We were on the plenty highway, a dirt track stretching 800km from the east coast to the centre of Australia. Two people and desert, as far as the eye could see.

We didn’t know it then, but that moment of complete isolation, that moment of connection with the natural world; that was the moment that Studio 31 was conceived.

The intervening years moved us back to civilisation and in our own directions. They moved us to London commutes and last trains home. City life, silent studios and constrained design.  We felt the frustration of trying to make a better world through the bureaucracy and red tape of organisations torn between the people and process.

Further and further from the wilds of the Suffolk countryside and adventures of a farming childhood, and further and further from building dens in the woodlands of Surrey, we suddenly felt the urge to stop.

We scrawled out our ideas onto flip chart paper and in a mass of red, blue, and green marker pen, Studio 31 was born.

It has been considered that environmentally sound practices hinder progress, innovation and aesthetically beautiful design. What we here at Studio 31 have found is something quite different; that in an industry based solely on the enrichment of outdoor spaces, sustainable process actually enhances design.

Our starting point was lifestyle not profit, it was sustaining not destroying, it was full colour not shades of grey. Embracing rather than compromising on our personalities and our ethics, forced us to move away from convention and gave us the opportunity to be bold, be adventurous and be honest.

Hoping to lead not follow, our aims are simple; create unique, innovative and personalised outdoor spaces, consider our carbon footprint and have a little fun along the way.

This is our first adventure. Welcome to studio 31.

The Healing Garden

The Pear Tree Centre

We can probably all relate to the great healing power of the outdoors. The moments of calm found perhaps in the wilderness but often just in the humble stillness of a familiar garden; the opportunity to take a breath in the midst of life’s relentless pace. The American naturalist and conservationist John Burroughs once said;

“I go to nature to be soothed and healed and to have my senses put in tune once more”

But more than just the opinion of a man, who spent his life immersed in the natural world, there is increasing research to suggest that nature does in fact have healing effects; effects which are tenable and based firmly in the realms of science. And it turns out that the science is in fact, compelling.

There are studies which show that after a stressful event, images of nature very quickly produce a calming effect; blood pressure, respiration rate, brain activity, and the production of stress hormones all decrease and mood improves (M. J. Kreitzer RN, PhD). Viewing plants, flowers, water and other natural elements has been linked to improved mental health and reduced anxiety. There are hypotheses which cite the healing power of plants or nature’s capacity to act as a distraction from the competing stimuli of day to day life, but whatever the rationale, the studies commissioned have found no variance in the outcomes. Nature has the power to heal and the power to calm.

Yet, perhaps ironically, poor mental or physical health, by its very character, reduces our access to natural amenities, often in a very literal sense. So much of our natural environment is inaccessible to people who may for example have mobility issues or a whole host of other physical or mental health conditions. It seems, the more we need nature, the less access we have to it.

One concept trying to counter this is that of the healing garden. The first reference to the link between horticulture and healing dates back thousands of years but the modern concept hasn’t moved too far from the original ideas. Healing gardens are spaces which enable people to easily engage with the natural environment; spaces which encourage active healing through just being outdoors and having the opportunity to engage all the senses in that process. They are designed in such a way as to promote healing through encouraging users to interact with the space and other people in different ways. One of our projects here at Studio 31, uses this very concept.  An idea that most of us have probably felt at some time or another; the idea that a garden can, in some small way, heal.

A few short years ago, The Halesworth Community Nursing Care Fund (HCNCF) sparked an idea to create a holistic hub for people who have been diagnosed with a life limiting illness. It was something so idealistic at the time, that it almost seemed a pipe dream but thanks to the passion, perseverance and dogged determination of a remarkable charity, it is now very much a reality.

LSI architects in Norwich have designed a contemporary building worthy of the project; one that steps away from the conventional medical stigma and instead radiates nurture, warmth and togetherness. Here at Studio 31, we have been asked to create an equally powerful outdoor space; one that gives patients, carers and family, a chance to be together, to escape, to reflect and to heal.

Our strategy is to build garden spaces that feel private and intimate but that also welcome people in. Our aim is provide users with choices and allow them to find, at a particular moment of need, a place in the garden to centre themselves or process all that may be happening. The garden is not only about the spaces that it creates but also the sensations and our aim is to create a therapeutic garden which nourishes all the senses.

Working on this project has taught us that garden design can be many things. It can be innovative, traditional or cutting edge. It can incorporate entertaining space, outdoor kitchens or art but whatever its structure or form, what garden design offers most is connection. Perhaps in a more conventional garden design sense, this might be a social space, to connect with family, a personal space to connect with a partner or perhaps a solitary space, to connect with the earth itself; with fingernails full of compost and the smell of soft, warm soil in the air.

In this very special garden, the concept of connection is a keenly felt one; connection with self, with family, carers and professionals, connection with the natural world and importantly connection with life.

With both directors of Studio 31 having grown up immersed in nature and our ethos deeply rooted in the ideas of honesty, creativity and sustainability; it is not hard to see how our team became excited about this ground breaking venture.

With the project due to start building work early this year, watch this space for updates on how it is progressing and the start of the landscape work subsequently. If you want to find out more about this pioneering project or donate to its inception or ongoing costs, please do go to the HCNCF webpage or contact us at Studio 31. Meanwhile watch our social media for updates on the design stages of a garden which aims to bring to life John Burroughs’ eloquent words.